Cheat Sheet

Homebrewing For Dummies

When you’re brewing your own beer at home, get to know the abbreviated versions of homebrewing terms to help read your recipes and directions, keep a basic measurement conversion chart handy, and check out the hierarchy of beers chart so you know what category and type of beer you want to homebrew and possibly enter into competition.

Beer Style Guidelines Hierarchy

The following list has been compiled by the Beer Judge Certification Program and is used by the American Homebrewers Association for competitive purposes. This hierarchical list presents an overview of all the world's beer styles (along with Cider and Mead). All beers are categorized as Ale, Lager or Mixed Style; under each of these headings are listed all of the major beer styles (in capital letters) and their sub-styles.

ALE

ENGLISH PALE ALE

Standard Ordinary Bitter

Special / Best Bitter

Extra Special / Strong Bitter

SCOTTISH AND IRISH ALE

Scottish Light 60

Scottish Heavy 70

Scottish Export 80

Irish Red Ale

Scotch Strong Ale

AMERICAN ALE

American Pale Ale

American Amber Ale

American Brown Ale

ENGLISH BROWN ALE

Mild

Southern English Brown Ale

Northern English Brown Ale

PORTER

Brown Porter

English Porter

Baltic Porter

STOUT

Dry Stout

Sweet Stout

Oatmeal Stout

Foreign Extra Stout

American Stout

Russian Imperial Stout

INDIA PALE ALE

English IPA

American IPA

Imperial IPA

BELGIAN AND FRENCH ALE

Witbier

Belgian Pale Ale

Saison

Biere de Garde

SOUR ALE

Berliner Weisse

Flanders Red Ale

Straight (unblended) Lambic

Gueuze

Fruit Lambic

BELGIAN STRONG ALE

Belgian Blonde Ale

Belgian Dubbel

Belgian Tripel

Belgian Golden Strong Ale

Belgian Dark Strong Ale

STRONG ALE

Old Ale

English Barley Wine

American Barley Wine

LAGER

LIGHT LAGER

Lite American Lager

Standard American Lager

Premium American Lager

Munich Helles

Dortmunder Export

PILSENER

German Pilsener (Pils)

Bohemian Pilsener

Classic American Pilsener

EUROPEAN AMBER LAGER

Vienna Lager

Oktoberfest / Märzen

DARK LAGER

Dark American Lager

Munich Dunkel

Schwarzbier (black beer)

BOCK

Maibock / Helles Bock

Traditional Bock

Doppelbock

Eisbock

MIXED STYLE

LIGHT HYBRID BEER

Cream Ale

Blonde Ale

Kölsch

American Wheat or Rye

AMBER HYBRID BEER

Northern German Altbier

California Common Beer

Dusseldorf Altbier

GERMAN WHEAT AND RYE BEER

Weizen / Weiss bier

Dunkelweizen

Weizenbock

Roggenbier (Rye beer)

FRUIT BEER

SPICE / HERB / SPECIALTY BEER

Spice / Herb / Vegetable beer

Christmas / Winter / Specialty Spiced Beer

SMOKE FLAVORED and WOOD AGED BEER

Classic Rauchbier

Other Smoked Beer

Wood Aged Beer

SPECIALTY BEER

MEAD AND CIDER

TRADITIONAL MEAD

Dry Mead

Semi-sweet Mead

Sweet Mead

MELOMEL (FRUIT MEAD)

Cyser (apple Melomel)

Pyment (grape Melomel)

Other Fruit Melomel

OTHER MEAD

Metheglin (spiced Mead)

Braggot (barley Mead)

Open Category Mead

STANDARD CIDER and PERRY

Common Cider

English Cider

French Cider

Common Perry

Traditional Perry

SPECIALTY CIDER and PERRY

New England Cider

Fruit Cider

Apple Wine

Other Specialty Cider and Perry

Homebrewing Abbreviation Slang

Quite a few technical (and wordy) homebrewing terms exist, so to make it easier to read homebrewing recipes and directions, terms have been abbreviated. Here’s a handy guide for homebrewing abbreviations:

Abbreviation

What It Stands For

AAU

Alpha Acid Unit. A measurement of hop bittering potential.

ABV

Alcohol By Volume. One of two methods of expressing alcohol
content in beer. (See ABW.)

ABW

Alcohol By Weight. One of two methods of expressing alcohol
content in beer. (See ABV.)

BJCP

Beer Judge Certification Program. National organization for
official homebrew judges.

DME

Dry Malt Extract. The spray-dried version of liquid malt
extract.

DMS

Di-Methyl Sulfide. An off flavor and aroma reminiscent of
cooked corn.

ESB

Extra Special Bitter. A medium-high gravity ale of British
origin.

FG

Final Gravity. The measurement of gravity taken at the end of
fermentation that allows the brewer to compute the alcohol content
of beer. (See OG.)

FWH

First Wort Hopping. The practice of introducing bittering hops
to the beer during the sparging / lautering phase of the mashing
procedure.

HBU

Homebrew Bitterness Unit. A unit of measurement used by
homebrewers to denote the amount of bittering in beer.

HSA

Hot Side Aeration. The unintentional exposure of the still-warm
wort to oxygen that can lead to problems in your brew, not the
least of which is premature staling.